Powershell.com – Powershell Scripts, Tips and Resources

Unblocking Files with PowerShell v3

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Thu, 24 May 2012 19:55:59 GMT

There are a number of new features in PowerShell v3 that while not huge like CIM or workflow are os significant help to the hard pressed administrator. One of these is the Unblock-File cmdlet. If you haven’t updated your help the online version Read More......(read more)

Query Local Administrators with CIM

The Lonely Administrator — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:12:25 GMT

Yesterday I posted an article on listing members of the local administrators group with PowerShell and Get-WmiObject. PowerShell 3.0 offers an additional way using the CIM cmdlets. The CIM cmdlets query the same WMI information, except instead of using Read More......(read more)

Use a Module to Simplify Your PowerShell Profile

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Thu, 24 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, teaches how to use a Windows PowerShell module to simplify your profile. Hey, Scripting Guy! I have a problem and I hope you can provide some answers. My Windows PowerShell profile is, I guess, a bit excessive Read More......(read more)

WMI providers

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:44:53 GMT

I found a class new to me - Msft_Providers and this got me interested in WMI providers. PS> Get-CimInstance -Class Msft_Providers | select -ExpandProperty provider Msft_ProviderSubSystem SCM Event Provider WmiPerfClass That seems a bit low. Read More......(read more)

Bangalore IT Pro: Windows Server 2008 R2 Virtualization training and free certification!

From Ravikanth's Blog — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:31:17 GMT

As a part of our continued focus to help the IT Pro community members, we are introducing a full day training on Windows Server 2008 R2 virtualization and free certification to a few selected members. This event is scheduled on 2nd June, 2012 at the Microsoft Read More......(read more)

Query Local Administrators with WMI

The Lonely Administrator — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:09:54 GMT

I have a quick post today on using WMI to list members of the local administrators group. It is very simple to get the group itself with the Win32_Group class. PS S:\> get-wmiobject win32_group -filter "name='Administrators'" Caption Read More......(read more)

PowerShell ISE Addon: Yet another ISE function explorer

From Ravikanth's Blog — Wed, 23 May 2012 12:30:13 GMT

Fellow PowerShell MVP Jeff Hicks posted a nice script to find all functions and filters in an ISE script and show the same in a GUI dialog. Jeff used Regex to figure out the function and filter details. This got me thinking. Why can't we do the same Read More......(read more)

Use a Central File to Simplify Your PowerShell Profile

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, shows how to use a central file to simplify configuring your Windows PowerShell profile. Hey, Scripting Guy! So can you tell me without all the chatter, what is the best way to create a single Windows PowerShell Read More......(read more)

Where-object in PowerShell v3

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Tue, 22 May 2012 19:32:55 GMT

Where-Object – aliased to where, but never, ever, ever, ever to ? – had a very simple syntax in PowerShell v2 Where-Object [-FilterScript] <scriptblock> [-InputObject <psobject>] [<CommonParameters>] It was normally used as Get-Process Read More......(read more)

Deciding Between One or Multiple PowerShell Profiles

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, discusses some of the decision points between using one or multiple Windows PowerShell profiles. Hey, Scripting Guy! OK, so I understand that there are different types of Windows PowerShell profiles (I liked Read More......(read more)

UK PowerShell group–next two meetings

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Mon, 21 May 2012 19:55:25 GMT

29 May 2012 PowerShell and Windows server 2012 – new functionality pt 2 http://msmvps.com/blogs/richardsiddaway/archive/2012/05/08/uk-powershell-group-may-2012.aspx 4 July Jonathan Medd XenDesktop and PowerShell This will be at the slightly later Read More......(read more)

Understanding the Six PowerShell Profiles

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Mon, 21 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, discusses the six different Windows PowerShell profiles, and when to use each. Hey, Scripting Guy! Dude, I have been reading some of the posts in your most excellent blog; and first of all, I want to say I Read More......(read more)

Using Invoke-WmiMethod to set the DNS servers

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Sun, 20 May 2012 18:41:32 GMT

In the last post I showed that there was an issue with the way the SetDNSServerSearchOrder of the Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration class worked This would work $nic = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter "Index=7" Read More......(read more)

TCP/IP Alternative Configurations: pt IV reset to static address

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Sun, 20 May 2012 10:33:05 GMT

At some stage we may need to reset our NIC back to having a static address $index = 7 $nic = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration ` -Filter "Index=$index" $ipaddress = @( "10.10.54.202" ) $subnet = @( "255.255 Read More......(read more)

Weekend Scripter: Scripting Guy Reveal Their TechEd 2012 Schedule

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Sun, 20 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : The Scripting Guy reveals his Microsoft TechEd 2012 schedule and all the Windows PowerShell goodness thereof. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. Yesterday we played WhatIf with the Scripting Wife about what sessions she would choose Read More......(read more)

Weekend Scripter: Scripting Wife Creates Her Ideal TechEd 2012 Schedule

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : The Scripting Wife plays WhatIf and creates her ideal Microsoft TechEd 2012 schedule. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. The Scripting Wife likes to use WhatIf in her daily musings. She has also been hearing from a lot of people who Read More......(read more)

Awesome Use of PowerShell

Don Jones — Sat, 19 May 2012 01:32:00 GMT

I recently moderated a Webinar for VMware, about their vCenter Protect Essentials Plus product (formerly a Shavlik product). Awesome PowerShell integration.

So basically, this product (which I shall henceforth call vCPEP) is like System Center Configuration Manager. It inventories your systems, deploys patches (their big schtick is that they handle non-MS patches in a very integrated way, rather than just doing MS patches), yadda yadda yadda.

In the latest version of the "Plus" product, they also provide this neat feature called ITScripts. It's an in-the-box library of PowerShell scripts, which the company has tested, certified, and digitally signed (hello, no tampering), which can be deployed to your managed systems for local execution on those systems. In other words, if you've deployed their little management agent (and if you use their product, you would), you can have it run scripts on targeted systems on your behalf.

This is Cool. Yes, it's something you could get with PowerShell Remoting - but because they know about all of your systems, you can target the scripts more effectively. "Only run this on machines that have iTunes 10 installed," for example. They support workflow processes (not PowerShell v3 Workflow; their own thing). You can modify system configurations - disable auto update services on stuff like Adobe Air (which on my Mac updates itself about 33 times a day). Install printers. Configure VPNs. Reset local passwords. Configure USB. Clean up temp files. Get the last boot time or service tag. Get lists of shares. Retrieve event logs. And so on. $GREAT.

You can, of course, insert your own PowerShell scripts. And the sexy bit - the bit I'm truly intrigued by - is that the company is accepting submissions of scripts, and plans to test and certify them. So you'll have an authoritative, trusted source for scripts. Frankly, this is action I want in on, and I don't even have any machines to manage. I'm going to try and get enough of a lab set up with this product that I can start authoring scripts for inclusion in that eventual certified library. How awesome would that be?

Let me know if you're using this tool already - I'd love to chat with you about what you're using it for, and how it's doing for you. I think it's stellar that folks outside Microsoft are seeing the benefits of PowerShell and incorporating it into their products like this. It's a real winner.

TCP/IP Alternative Configurations: pt III set the alternative configuration

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Fri, 18 May 2012 20:01:43 GMT

We have seen how to set the NIC to use DHCP to get its address. This post shows how to set the alternative configuration on the NIC. If you just want APIPA then do nothing – other wise use this script $HKLM = 2147483650 #HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE Read More......(read more)

Advanced PowerShell v3 book

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:06:15 GMT

Three new chapters are added to the MEAP – Manning Early Access Program Chapter 3 – Using the PowerShell help system – includes PowerShell v3 Updateable help Chapter 5 – Working with PSsnapins and Modules Chapter 9 – Formatting www.manning.com Read More......(read more)

1 millionth hit

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:38:05 GMT

This blog had its 1 millionth hit yesterday. Thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my posts Read More......(read more)

Friday Fun: Get Latest PowerShell Scripts

The Lonely Administrator — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:51:12 GMT

Probably like many of you I keep almost all of my scripts in a single location. I’m also usually working on multiple items at the same time. Some times I have difficult remembering the name of a script I might … Continue reading → Read More......(read more)

Use PowerShell to Find the History of USB Flash Drive Usage

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft premier field engineer, Jason Walker, shows how to use Windows PowerShell to get a history of USB drive usage. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. I was talking to Jason Walker at the Charlotte Windows PowerShell User Group Read More......(read more)

Scripting Games 2012 comments: #20 multiple ifs

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Thu, 17 May 2012 19:03:18 GMT

An if statement is used to test a condition and if is true do one thing and do another if it is false. It can be written generically as if (<condition>){ do stuff} else {do other stuff} Sometimes we need to test numerous alternatives. We could use Read More......(read more)

Finding and Using Windows PowerShell Documentation

Hey, Scripting Guy! Blog : Windows PowerShell — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:01:00 GMT

Summary : Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, talks about sources of Windows PowerShell documentation. Hey, Scripting Guy! I like Windows PowerShell, but it does not seem to come with any documentation. What is up with this? It seems that Microsoft makes Read More......(read more)

TCP/IP Alternative Configuration: pt II Set DHCP

Richard Siddaway's Blog — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:14:38 GMT

The next step on our journey to an alternative configuration is setting the NIC to use DHCP I will keep cheating for now and specify the NIC – on my machine I now it is the NIC whose Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration has an Index of 7 $index = 7 Get-WmiObject Read More......(read more)